A Couple’s Closure

I had an interesting conversation with someone who came to my office this afternoon. I’ve known him from way back because we came from the same town.
Our parents were friends, not close friends, but they both had high respects for each other. His father was a businessman and so was my father.

We were talking about some financial matters when the topic shifted to personal matters. He shared with me bits and pieces of his life.

Although we were town mates, he was not really my friend or barkada. And since I no longer live in Binangonan, I am not updated on the happenings there more so the personal lives of people.

His love story:

He met this teen girl from a different town in Rizal when he was 18. The girl was petitioned by her parents and after 5 years of dating, it was her time to leave for the US. She was afraid that when she leaves him behind, he would forget about her and fall for another woman. She insisted that marriage would guarantee their loyalty to each other.

They sealed their love with a kiss in front of a priest. She left for the US three months after their wedding.

Thirty years ago there were no cellular phones, no Facebook and email for easy and fast communication with loved ones living abroad.

Their love was a casualty of long distance relationship.

She outgrew him, he went astray.

He fell in love with a girl two years his junior. When his wife found out about his relationship, she stopped communicating with him.

Instead of getting a divorce in the US or filing for an annulment here in the Philippines, he just did what most people do, get married abroad.

He lived his life with his new family even if he is still married with his first wife. The wife continued his life in the US. She dated but never married because she remained bound by her love for her husband.

One day, the husband found himself in Settle where his first wife resided. Thru Facebook, he was able to contact his first wife. They agreed to meet secretly to have a closure.

They were so happy to see each other again. For a few hours, they felt like old times. Their conversations were long because it covered 20 years of absence from each other’s lives. There were excitements, sadness, guilt, anger, but over all, they felt that there was still love between them.
But the guy didn’t want to offend his current wife and his children. He said goodbye to his first wife and that didn’t give her the closure she much needed. That second goodbye broke her heart again, and this time, it was even more painful.